The Strange Disappearance of Assemblyman Schwartz
Fiction by B. Franklin Quill ©1994
THE NEWS:
Saturday, April 30, 1994
Headline - The Sacramento Sentinel
Assemblyman Delayed in Arriving Home
The wife of California State Assemblyman Sheldon Schwartz reported that he had not returned home in La Putah by Friday, April 29, following the weekly session of the State Legislature. Assemblyman Schwartz represents the Eighty-First Assembly District.
Mrs. Schwartz was not yet worried about her husband, as he was known to sometimes stop overnight when driving home from Sacramento, but he had not yet telephoned her as was his normal practice. Assemblyman Schwartz had recently been in the news as the co-author of a controversial bill to ban the sale, possession and use of handguns in the State of California.
Sunday, May 1, 1994
Headline - The Sacramento Sentinel
Whereabouts of Assemblyman Cause for Alarm
Sylvia Schwartz, wife of State Assemblyman Sheldon Schwartz, stated to authorities that her husband, who represents the Eighty-First Assembly District, had not yet returned to his home in La Putah since the adjournment of the State Legislature last Thursday evening. It was his custom to call her if delayed by a meeting or if he elected to stay overnight along the way when driving home. The Assemblyman sometimes chose to drive rather than to go by plane. Inquiries to various State officials could give her no assurance. She has alerted the State Police and the Highway Patrol.
Monday, May 2, 1994
Headline - The Sacramento Sentinel
Car of Missing Assemblyman Found Abandoned
The car driven by missing California State Assemblyman Sheldon Schwartz was found abandoned at Lucerne, a small resort community at Clear Lake, in Lake County. The car, a 1994 Buick Roadmaster, was registered to the State of California and bore the license plate number A81. There were no signs of foul play. The keys were in the ignition and the car was completely out of gas. There was speculation that the car had been stolen from another location and left at Lucerne by a joyrider. A state-wide search is being conducted for the missing Assemblyman.
Monday, May 9, 1994
Headline - The Sacramento Sentinel
No Trace Yet Found of Missing Assemblyman
Assemblyman Sheldon Schwartz, of the Eighty-First Assembly District, has been missing since Friday, April 29, following the close of the legislative session. Authorities revealed that the Assemblyman's car was found abandoned at Lucerne, in Lake County, with the keys in the ignition and no fuel left in the tank. The car offered no evidence of foul play, but there is speculation that something sinister -- ranging from capture by space aliens to kidnapping by criminals for unknown motives -- has befallen the Assemblyman. The Assemblyman was not known to be wealthy. Assemblyman Schwartz had been in the news lately for leading the recent legislative effort that outlawed assault rifles, and was currently co-sponsoring additional legislation to outlaw the possession and use of handguns in California.
Monday, May 16, 1994
Headline - The Sacramento Sentinel
Search for Missing Assemblyman Called Off
Two weeks after his disappearance, the search for missing California State Assemblyman Sheldon Schwartz, who has represented the Eighty-First Assembly District for the last eight years, has been virtually abandoned. Assemblyman Schwartz has been missing since the close of the legislative session on April 28, 1994. His State car, a Buick Roadmaster, was found abandoned in good condition with the keys in the ignition and no fuel left in the tank, at Lucerne, in Lake County, a place far off the Assemblyman's known route of travel. His wife and two adult children haven't given up hope for the Assemblyman's safe return, theorizing that he might be suffering from memory loss induced by stress from his vigorous efforts to co-sponsor and pass a bill to deny California Citizens the possession and use of handguns. It is hoped that anyone with knowledge of the Assemblyman's whereabouts would come forward with useful information leading to a re-opening of the official investigation.
WHAT REALLY HAPPENED
The Truth:
It went off without a hitch. The van simply followed the Assemblyman's car until he pulled into a small restaurant in Modesto. Two of the men even got out of the van parked alongside his car and went into the restaurant and had dinner themselves, ordering a sandwich to go for the third man in the van.
When Schwartz came out it was a quick, easy maneuver to force him into the back of the van at gunpoint. It was dark enough so that apparently no one saw them. They arrived at the lodge deep in the woods, in the foothills; with Schwartz bound and gagged, but not blindfolded. It didn't matter what he saw, for he was not coming back.
He was taken into the well-furnished lodge and told to make himself at home by the three men, who formally introduced themselves. He was offered food and drink, shown where he could sleep, and made acquainted with the facilities. Schwartz was fifty-four years of age, with gray hair and a cunningly intelligent face. He knew that he was kidnapped but couldn't understand why. Since his kidnappers were well-dressed and seemed to be men of substance who treated him with some degree of gentility, he began to relax and note his surroundings with the view of later giving authorities a complete description... until he was seated in a chair and told exactly what he was to do and what was going to happen to him.
"Mr. Schwartz, you are the author of an Assembly Bill, are you not, that proposes to further restrict the possession and use of handguns in California?" A puzzled, hesitant,
"Yes..."
"And were you instrumental in securing the passage in the State Legislature of a law purporting to make illegal the possession and use of certain firearms classified as assault rifles?"
"Yes."
"Then you will be furnished with a copy of the United States Constitution, a copy of the Constitution for the State of California, a law dictionary and an English language dictionary. You will be kept here for three days, properly fed and otherwise accommodated. If, at the end of that time, you can show us where either document authorizes you and your legislative colleagues to disarm California Citizens, we will take you to your home unharmed and surrender ourselves to the authorities. If you cannot show us such language, in either document, you will be summarily hanged. Your three days will start tomorrow morning at 9:00 A.M."
"WHAT...!"
"Starting tomorrow! We will discuss your findings with you at the end of three days. Come with us now and we will show you your grave."
The stunned Assemblyman was shown his neatly dug grave, a few yards from the lodge, and began to understand that this wasn't a dream, that his captors meant serious business.
Needless to say, it didn't do much for his equanimity, so after a sleepless night, he began, for the first time in his life, to actually read the Constitutions to which he had taken a solemn oath to bear true faith and allegiance, and to which he had contracted to support and defend. Desperately, he read them over and over again for three days and half of three nights. No luck! Nothing there giving any agency of government lawful power to disarm the people. Nothing!
The Trial:
"Mr. Schwartz, what are your findings? What is your defense?"
"Well, I think the California Supreme Court once said that, since the California Constitution does not contain specific language giving the people the right to keep and bear arms, under the police power of the State, the Legislature could regulate their possession and use."
"Ah, Assemblyman Schwartz, did you read Article I, Section 1 of the California Constitution, where it says--'All people are by nature free and independent and have inalienable rights'. Among these are enjoying and defending life, liberty, acquiring, possessing and protecting property, pursuing and obtaining safety, happiness and privacy?"
"Yes... I read that."
"Then, can you please tell us, how can life and liberty be defended, property protected and safety pursued, without a weapon adequate to the task? Isn't taking away the means of exercising a right equivalent to taking away the right itself?"
"Well, ahh..."
"And did you read Article I, Section 24, which simply says-- "This enumeration of rights may not be construed to impair or deny others retained by the people?"
"Yes, I read that. But what difference does it make?"
"Well, Mr. Schwartz, should it not have occurred to you - and the judges of the Supreme Court - that the right to keep and bear arms, that is, the right of defense of liberty, person and property, with firearms if necessary, was a retained right which did not have to be specifically enumerated?"
"But what about the police power? What about that?!"
"Well, Mr. Schwartz, what is the so-called 'police power?' Did you read Article II, Section 1 of the California Constitution, which says: 'All political power is inherent in the people. Government is instituted for their benefit, and they may reform it when the public good may require'?
"All political power includes the legislative, executive and judicial powers, the police power, and the power of the people to defend their power. It means that no political power is inherent in government, which has only those powers specifically delegated to it by the Constitution, and no other powers. So tell us, Assemblyman Schwartz, did you, or the judges, read anywhere in the Constitution where the State was delegated power, in specific language, to disarm the very Citizens who created that same State?"
"Well... not exactly..."
"Police power is a gimmick, a judicial invention designed to circumvent Article II, Section 1. The only power a policeman has to carry a gun is the power the people have delegated to him, and the people cannot delegate a power which they, themselves, do not possess. In giving their public servants the power to carry guns, they do not give them the authority to take their own guns away from them, unless they commit crimes by violating the rights of others. No, Mr. Schwartz, in view of Article II, Section 1, police power is only to be used to enforce the rights of Citizens, not usurp them. By the way, you were apparently wise enough not to challenge the plain language of the Second, Ninth and Tenth Amendments to the Federal Constitution. You only had to look up the word 'militia' to understand the Second Amendment of the Federal Constitution, which says: 'A well regulated militia being necessary to the security of a free state, the right of the people to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed.' You recognized from your intense research that the militia is a body of armed Citizens - not the National Guard - so the security of a free state depends on a militia. And the militia, and therefore the security of a free state, depends on its Citizens being armed. The right of the people to keep and bear arms existed long before the Constitution was written. The Ninth and Tenth Amendments also acknowledge that the states and the people retained rights not specifically delegated in the Constitution, and that those rights existed long before the Constitution was written."
"But you men are doing something unlawful," said the troubled Assemblymen. "You have no right to kidnap me or... or hang me. You are guilty of a conspiracy!"
"Yes... it is unlawful... but we are desperate men who are engaged in a last resort to put down an open rebellion and an open conspiracy against us; a conspiracy by intransigent lawmakers and judges who are acting in concert to thwart the rights and liberties which, by their oaths, they have contracted to protect. It is you and your colleagues who are outlaws. Your oaths mean nothing. You are impervious to reason. You scoff at history and care nothing for the future. Why this is so, we do not know. Perhaps it is power that makes you selfish and corrupt. In any event, we go beyond the law in order to preserve the law, by putting down your defiant rebellion against it. Far more dangerous to freedom than criminals in the streets with guns, are the faithless servants in high places who subvert the nation by willfully converting the powers of government to their own interests. But we won't take the last few minutes of your life on Earth to make a manifold list of the Constitutional violations that the subversive lawmakers and judges are treasonously foisting upon us. It is not in our natures to utilize underworld tactics in this fashion. If you had done the honorable thing, you wouldn't now be here."
"But... this is vigilantism!"
"Yes, it is. It is a form of warfare. A guerrilla defense against the insidious war of subversion that you and your colleagues constantly wage against us. There are more than three of us, by the way. If we are apprehended, others will continue. This is just a start. You just happen to be the first to be brought to this archaic form of justice."
"You're rank cowards! All of you!"
"To a certain extent that may be true, but if we are caught we will undoubtedly be executed, and we are willing to take that risk. You, on the other hand, had no thought of ever being held accountable for your perfidious, unauthorized acts. You and the unconscionable rebels in the courts and the legislative halls of the nation think yourselves as utterly immune from retribution. You hide behind the laws against murder and mayhem. You are protected by your SWAT teams, helicopters and tanks. This is nothing but pure cowardice on your part. We have thought long and hard about this and, if necessary, are willing to give our lives to defend the Constitution and our country. Like we said before, if you had not betrayed your country, you wouldn't be here. By the way, did you leave your keys in your government car? We heard on the radio that it was found at Clear Lake in Lake County."
The Verdict:
"May God have mercy on your treacherous soul."
©1994 by B.F. Quill. Permission given to print, copy or quote for non-profit use only.
